The interior of a vehicle, especially vehicle seats, may heat significantly due to sunlight streaming through the vehicle windows. The temperature of the seats may even exceed the temperature of the occupant's skin if the exposure to sunlight is long term and the ambient temperature outside the vehicle is high enough so that heat transfer from the seats to the vehicle interior and from the vehicle interior to the vehicle exterior are impeded. In such cases, the vehicle seat may actually transfer additional heat to an occupant who is already hot. Thus, the vehicle occupant may find the heated seats very uncomfortable until the seats can be cooled, for example, using the vehicle air conditioning system.